Jimmy Neesham wishes Abhishek Nayar on his retirement; says he's bracing himself for a heavy Indian meal

Neesham has shared the dressing room with the Mumbai all-rounder in the KKR.

Published - 24 Oct 2019, 16:32 IST | Updated - 24 Oct 2019, 16:32 IST

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Another first-class stalwart calls it time on his celebrated career; a career built on hard work, relentless blood, sweat and frustration of not being able to break into the national side. This time it was the turn of Abhishek Nayar; a Mumbai cricket legend. The 36-year-old Nayar announced his retirement from first-class cricket on Wednesday (October 23), citing that there was no motivation left, considering there were no more opportunities left of making it to the top-level: International cricket.

“I have been thinking about this for a while. When you have no more opportunities of playing at the highest level, it is better that I make way for a young cricketer. There is no point in staying back,” Nayar told Sportstar. Nayar, who was the cornerstone of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy triumphs was dropped from the set-up during the 2017-18 season, following which he moved to Puducherry for years edition where he played four first-class games.

Overall, the all-rounder scored 5,749 runs in 103 first-class games (99 of which came for Mumbai) at an average of 45.62 which included 13 centuries and 32 half-centuries. The all-rounder made his international debut back in 2009 under MS Dhoni’s captaincy but couldn’t leave any sort of impact with either bat or ball and was duly dropped from the set-up; never to return again.

A man-manager/coach par excellence

Apart from his cricketing exploits, Nayar has been credited by cricketers like Dinesh Karthik, Unmukt Chand, Shreyas Iyer and Rohit Sharma for his man-management as well as coaching skills which helped them get better at their game. Karthik, in particular, has widely acknowledged the role in his resurgence as a cricketer.

Nayar has been the lead coach and mentor of the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket academy in Bengaluru but from the upcoming season, he will be serving as a deputy to head coach Brendon McCullum; a testimony to his growing stature in the coaching and man-management department. Naturally, with Nayar retiring, a lot of his former and current teammates have taken to social media to congratulate the cricketer for a successful first-class career.

New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who has carved out a different niche for himself courtesy his witty tweets and hilarious banters, had a rather unique message for Nayar. Neesham, who has shared the dressing room with the Mumbai all-rounder in the KKR, wrote: “Congrats @abhisheknayar1, hopefully, you’ve managed to get the knee swelling to settle down. I pray we can tour again so I can have 54 Indian meals in a row ????????????,”

Here is Jimmy Neesham’s tweet

Congrats @abhisheknayar1 , hopefully you’ve managed to get the knee swelling to settle down. I pray we can tour again so I can have 54 Indian meals in a row 😂😂😂
— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) October 23, 2019

One of the fans showed Neesham what a “56 bhog” Indian meal looks like. “This is what one meal with @abhisheknayar1 and @arsrikkanth looks like ????????????,” replied the Kiwi all-rounder.